Orb of Promises
by BioFlare
Summary: Set in the Pre-Columbian time of the Aztec society, a young girl attempts to perform a heist in the name of a mysterious being who has a strong hold over her. Is her faith well placed, or will it wind up dooming her? (Short one-shot for a contest on a forum. See prompt inside!)


I very much apologise for any misinformation I give regarding the Aztec culture. This was written in a short period, and therefore it was a little rushed and I had limited time to research it.

Written for a forum contest (Pokemon Crossroads Forum) with the prompt "Pokemon in History." It was required to have a specific sentence in it, as well as an eeveelution of the author's choice. I picked the Aztec society to work with, and boy was it interesting to read about them!

Thank you so much for reading. Hope you enjoy it! Again, sorry if there is any incorrect information regarding this culture or time period.

* * *

 **Orb of Promises**

Her eyes were planted on the inscription before her. The glimmer of wealth and happiness lay but an arm's stretch away, beckoning for her. This time had finally arrived, after weeks of meticulous preparation and countless hours of slow execution. Her prize would soon present itself in all its glory.

 _He would be happy. He would be pleased. He was all that mattered._

Reaching a soiled hand forward, a girl of merely seventeen felt a wave of elation wash over her as she stroked the inscription with a complete understanding of what it was telling her. Her greedy eyes lit up with a form of hunger that she had never felt before. And never, too, would she have performed what her society deemed an unscrupulous act of selfishness had it not been for the one she aimed to please.

 _It was all for him._

It was a special kind of love that she felt for him. It wasn't infatuation or anything of the sort, for such unspeakable ideas repulsed her; devotion spoke louder to her than anything else. If she feared judgement from another Mēxihcah, she would have expected such misguided slurs as "manipulation" or "forced control," but the opinions of others were never going to influence her way of thinking. Succumbing to the ignorant rulings of those who could not possibly comprehend the bond she shared could be labelled as nothing less than a crime and betrayal to the one who would save her.

She glanced warily to her avian companion, whose brightly coloured plumage ruffled upon the shake of her body. The bird pokémon's black head tilted to the side as she emitted a small peep, indicating the gold that lay in a hand-carved obsidian box before them both. This box was both longer and wider than the girl's height while standing, and every inch of it was occupied by bars of pure gold.

"Raawrk!" the chatot squawked, flapping her wings a little. Her voice dropped an octave as she rumbled, "Bring me the gold, Nelli."

Even if the speech was flowing from the flying type's beak, the girl knew perfectly well that the brain behind the voice was not her feathered companion, but the one she was doing this all for. His voice was enchanting, bewitching. Since his appearance in her life, Nelli had not once felt the temptation to disobey his commands. Each note projected from his brilliant mind was enriched with reason and seemed to make perfect sense. Even when in a circumstance she would normally question, his requests would calm her and make her see things from a rational point of view. Never did she have a doubt in her mind about him.

"Yes, Master Yacat," muttered Nelli monotonously, unable to tear her eyes from the one thing that her master had worked with her towards obtaining.

Behind her lay two guards devoid of life; they were merely two of the many human lives she had taken in his name. It was necessary, however. These men stood in her way, and the chants that her master had instilled within the musical memory of her chatot had helped to dispose of them. First, the chants would ring throughout the premises with an irresistible lull into the scattering of one's mind. Confusion and madness would soak the victim's mind and often resulted in multiple foes taking up arms against one another. That was the best case scenario, when Nelli would not have to strike the initial blow. Sometimes they would even end each other's lives on the spot, without any further intervention. Other times, Cuicatl would project her voice in such a way that would sway their enemies into a deep slumber. This would affect Nelli as well if not for the invisible shield guarding her mind. That was her master's doing, of course. He could do anything.

However, opening a locked chest was something she would have to complete herself. The sight of an obvious lock was obscuring her view of the gold. A fragment of annoyance coursed through her as she scoured possibilities in her head pertaining to the whereabouts of the needed key. Either it was hidden somewhere in the house, or it had been entrusted to a person of power...

Casting an indifferent stare upon the slaughter they had wrought, Nelli inspected the second guard from where she was perched. A silver goblet of octli had been within his grasp when she and her chatot had appeared from above, obviously a gift from their noble masters. The element of surprised was a tactic Yacat often condoned, which only encouraged the girl to employ it as often as possible. Throughout her weeks of serving him, she found it not only effective, but progressively easier to master. Thieves were uncommon in pīpiltin areas due to the strict laws and the belief that nobody would be foolish enough to attempt any sort of heist or assassination. Guards roamed the courtyards and oftentimes they had pokémon with them. After her time breaking into houses – of both nobles and peasants – Nelli knew that pokémon were very rarely used within the walls of a home. Regular homes were simply too small, consisting usually of a single room. Nobles held possessions far too valuable to risk the use of a pokémon's elemental powers. Fire and water especially were disastrous when abused or misfired. This gave her an advantage.

The girl slipped from her place beside the gold, which resided on a loft in the second-story room she and her companion had broken into, and carefully descended the stone steps. She moved slowly toward the immobile guard and stopped, listening for any sounds of inhalation. When no such sound visited in her ears, she crept further forward and slipped her hand into the side of the guard's stiff cotton armour. Withdrawing a short, sharp warrior-grade spear tipped with shards of obsidian, the girl hesitated, briefly considering taking it with her, before placing it down beside her in rejection. The last thing she wanted was to encumber herself. Reaching back to the same place, Nelli suddenly froze as she heard a groan escape the guard's mouth.

Fear held her still as she stared with wide eyes, shocked at the discovery that her attempts to snuff out his life had failed. The guard's blood had been pooling rapidly for minutes now, and she assumed it was only by the will of Patecatl, the god of healing, that he had lived.

Frantically she jumped back and held herself low to the floor. She needed not summon Cuicatl to finish off the man's life, for the chatot was already completely aware of the duties she did not complete. The immediate song which spewed from her beak caused Nelli to instinctively cover her ears with her hands, although the gesture was not necessary.

Immediately the man lost what consciousness he was beginning to gather and his head knocked against the floor. Human and pokémon waited together for the inevitable scuffle of people down below, on the first floor. Sound travelled quickly when bouncing off stone walls, but the flying type's calls would hopefully be interpreted merely as a passing bird. It was not uncommon for small animals or pokémon to find themselves in the houses of both the pīpiltin and mācehualtin, especially birds, who could fly through windows or entrances.

When no audible indication of a disturbance could be heard, Nelli directed her eyes to her chatot and gave a slow nod. In no hurry to carry out the following deed, she turned back to the guard and wrapped her fingers around the hilt of the small stone knife that she carried on her person at all times.

What followed was brutal to some and normal to others. The killing had begun when she had first started serving Yacat. He had instructed her to carry out a murder to prove her dedication to his cause. She had been almost unwilling at first, but betraying him was a path she would preserve at the cost of another's life. It had been okay in the end, because the man she had assassinated with Yacat's help had been a blight on their society, or so Yacat had said. Oftentimes Nelli was not provided with the reasons for her missions. Instead, Yacat offered her support, encouragement, material rewards and spiritual enlightenment. Ridding Tenochtitlan of this guard was not going to disrupt the balance of the world, and this was precisely the outcome that a person dedicated to protective services would have been prepared for.

Rationality was something the girl practiced often without realising. It disgusted her that she would question her master's desires after he bestowed upon her such a strong purpose. Her gratefulness had to extend beyond the doubts and questioned morality that she so frequently harboured.

Her thoughts had occupied all corners of her mind as the knife had been undergoing its deathly actions, so to her surprise, the deed had been done. The girl pulled the knife from the man's chest and rotated her view to the other guard lying inert on the floor. A subdued feeling of dread seeped into her bones as she realised that she would have to do the same to the other guard to make sure. Hauling the magnitude of gold from that obsidian box out of this noble's house and all the way back to Yacat was not only going to be difficult, but it would take a lot of time. She was not alone, however. He had deals with other merchants who were going to help with the transportation of the stolen goods, who were to meet her outside the borders of the property. For her, it was a matter of scaling the walls whilst holding such a large sum of gold bars, passing it off to the men collecting it once she reached the meeting place, and then returning to repeat the action time and again. The goal was to filter every bar of gold until all that remained was the large obsidian box. She knew Yacat would have that, too, if it were possible for Nelli to carry it by herself.

Cuicatl emitted a small squawk as her head twitched to the side, as if picking up on some noise. Nelli withdrew the knife from the second guard's chest and found the key on him, which was nothing more than a large plate of stone crafted in a particular pattern. She assumed that only this pattern would allow the gold-holding box to open, and now that she had it, the funnelling operation could properly begin.

 **ooo**

Nelli's life was empty and crude. Day in and day out, it followed the painfully repetitive and suffocating social structure of Tenochtitlan. She attended school for most of her days, as she had for two years now, and on the days she had free, she was obliged to either stay at home with her mother and practice making clothes or, if he needed help, accompany her father in the city's central marketplace. He was a pochtecatlatoque, an overseer of the pochteca, merchants who travelled between the twelve locations throughout the empire where high officials resided. His role as a pochtecatlatoque was primarily to guide, train and administer the younger and more inexperienced pochteca. He had spent years as a pochtecatl, which meant he travelled non-stop around the empire for years upon years. For most of Nelli's life, she had not known her father simply because of how often he travelled. For this, she resented him, although her mother would never speak ill of him.

When he had become older and experienced enough to take on the role of the overseer, he had returned to Tenochtitlan and sold his wares alongside pochteca whom he trained. This resulted in Nelli having to listen and learn as well, when the art of trading never really interested her.

Not only would many pochteca come through, but also slavers. Slaves were often sold either to other slavers or they were sold for sacrificial purposes. Often, slaves who have committed three crimes and have been punished a total of nine times are the ones being sold for sacrificial purposes. Nelli would have found it disheartening that people were put to death for what was sometimes a petty crime, except that she knew it was an honour to be sacrificed. Sometimes sacrifices of pokémon occurred, although it was less frequent, and mostly they understood the importance of an offering as well. After all, every sacrifice would go to rest in the afterlife with the sun god, which was a privilege in itself.

It was one such day when Nelli observed a group of slaves enter the part of the marketplace that her father's stall was. There were only three human slaves – two young males and one older – and five pokémon. It was uncommon to see a slaver who dealt in both human and pokémon slaves, but there were always exceptions. The slaver nodded politely to her as he walked by, a small band of guards walking between and beside a few of the slaves. After the three scantily-clad humans passed by, their heads hanging in shame and fatigue, the five pokémon followed in their wake.

The first two were farfetch'd—brown feathered pokémon often found with a stalk in their bills or clutched in their odd wings. These two were absent their plants, however, and looked rather unkempt. Quietly, Nelli thought to herself that the treatment of these slaves could be a little better.

Following the farfetch'd was a caged ekans whose lilac and yellow body was coiled in a wooden cage being carried by one of the guards. Similarly, a dull-green spiderlike pokémon in the arms of another guard was also caged. The spinarak hissed alongside its fellow caged ekans, both ready to spit poison. However, there was some sort of paralysing agent extracted from certain wild pokémon that hunters often deployed, preventing them from moving.

It was not those four pokémon that Nelli became entranced by, however. A thousand times she had seen farfetch'd, ekans and spinarak. No, the fifth pokémon, the pokémon who was surrounded by _five_ guards, was unlike any she had ever seen before. He was a smallish, sleek, four-legged wonder with a silky looking lavender coat. Giant ears sported from his head, below which were bunches of fur branching out to the sides. Beautiful eyes of deep purple stared at her as he padded slowly on by, his single tail which was forked at the end flicking in annoyance. His gaze was firmly set on her as he walked by, asserting a hold over her with inaudible promises and endless wonder. The jewel on his forehead seemed to gleam, and the untold secrets hidden within were all of a sudden the most tempting thing she had ever come across.

Then he was gone.

Nelli turned to her father, who was busy with a patron discussing animal hide. She pulled on his maguey cloak and waited for him to pay her the attention she deserved, but the man's temperament was tested as he swung around and glared with thick eyebrows and a clear display of irritation.

"What, child?" he demanded, his gruff voice making her flinch.

The girl only stared back, suddenly realising that her interruption could potentially drive off the customer. "A-allow me to help you with that," she answered in a hurry, rushing around him a little to help hold up the animal skins he had stacked upon his left arm.

Her father gave a nod of approval, but Nelli's mind was filled with nothing more than thoughts of that pokémon. She made the decision then and there to find out what that pokémon was and how she could meet him again.

Day in and day out, Nelli searched for that mystical pokémon she had instantaneously felt a connection with. After asking around the marketplace and trading some goods with a slaver for information, she was able to follow some leads in her spare time. She spotted him over a week later, no longer under the command of a slaver. He was situated in the front courtyard of a random noble's house, and although she knew she was not permitted to venture into other people's land, especially land belonging to pīpiltin, she could not resist the draw that this pokémon had and the enormity of her curiosity. It was as if a hand was continuously pulling her closer, enticing her into the unknown. This pokémon could offer her something that she was not yet sure of, yet already had complete faith in.

When she finally approached the sleek quadruped and could be sure that nobody of a threatening nature was around, she was able to near the creature and gaze from afar. The pokémon was well aware of her presence from the start, however, and took only a single glance at the human to convey the message he intended.

 **ooo**

The girl and her chatot grinned with ferocious eagerness as the key clicked nicely into the obsidian box. The satisfaction of the sound was almost exciting, and what was to follow was most certainly that exactly.

Nelli peered at her colourful companion and a felt tingles in the pit of her stomach. The espeon she had been working for was going to be overwhelmed with pride and appreciation for what she had accomplished for him. His honey-dripped words always coaxed her into believing what he believed, even if it seemed wrong at first. This had seemed wrong, but after the continuous effort he had invested into mentoring her, the revelation she had was something akin to life saving. Yacat was right about everything, and she had come to love his guidance as much as the odd sensation that would come over her when his eyes lit up that brilliant blue. Each time it happened, it was as if she felt her new identity creeping into her soul and showing her the path of light.

And that's why she was devoted.

Nelli's chest expanded as a large breath of air sat in the pits of her lungs for but a moment as she waited in anticipation. The time had come, and as she and her partner readied themselves to be bathed in the shimmering light of the gold's brilliant reflection, she pulled up the obsidian lid.

Finally they saw the light, but it definitely wasn't what they expected.

Immediately the two were thrown backwards and off the loft. Both Nelli and her chatot smashed into the stone floor of the house, searing pain beginning to shoot up her spine as the rest of her body convulsed in shock. The terrible feeling was nothing she was even close to familiar with, but she was not permitted the time to think about it before a swarm of guards flooded into the entrance to the room. They needed not inject the two with a paralysing serum, for the small electric spider pokémon hidden in the obsidian box had done it for them.

"Put them in binds. The girl will be punished, while the bird can be a sacrifice," one of the authority figures grunted. He stepped around the convulsing girl and showed himself before her, no trace of empathy apparent among his features. "We've been waiting for you, little thief. You're not as good as you thought you were."

Nelli and Cuicatl were dragged out of the room by multiple guards, and the only thing the girl could continuously think about was Yacat. He was going to save her. He wouldn't just leave her to slavery and Cuicatl to die. He loved her, and he cared for her. He trained her up for weeks so she could steal for him... He...he did that because he cared. He treated her well...and yet she ended up where she was now.

Did he slip up? Did he stop caring? No, that can't have been it... He had a responsibility to take care of her now. He adored her just as much as she adored him...

...Didn't he?


End file.
